Air India or Jet Airways, who will join Star Alliance?

[fretn]

Taken from Airliners.net, and from the original poster kiwiandrew who is active on this forum too.

AI has acknowledged that 9W are also in talks with *A and that both airlines could end up in the alliance .

http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/... ... 5318/cs/1/


Air India has set March 2011 as the outer deadline to join the Star Alliance, the world's largest commercial pact among carriers, chairman Arvind Jadhav said here late Friday.

This is the first time since an invitation was extended in Beijing in late 2007 that the Indian carrier has set a specific time frame to become a member of Star Alliance, which now has has 27 members with Brazil's TAM Airlines formally joining it Friday.

'We are targeting December internally, but will officially join in the first quarter of 2011,' Jadhav told IANS on the margins of an event to induct TAM into the Star Alliance network, even as he acknowledged that Jet Airways was in talks to join the pact.

'India is a growing market. So it can have more than one member. The market is bound to grow. But we have made it clear to Star Alliance that Jet Airways should join after us as we would like to have the first mover advantage.'

Good news for Brussels if true

[cnc]

wow i expected AI wouldn't make a real problem out of it but not that they openly acknowledge to see 9W as an alliance partner

[Atlantis]

If Jet Airways will join *A it will be very good news for Brussels Airport

[NCB]

SN and 9W need to codeshare on transatlantic.

[tolipanebas]

If 9W joins STAR, a codeshare with SN on the transatlantic would be much closer indeed, and this would be great news. Right now, 9W operates the A330 to JFK, but they could upgrade the route to 77W and let SN fill the extra seats. It would solve SN's problem of having only limited access to NY right away. throw in the seats they can sell on 9W's flight to EWR and NY is brilliantly covered without sending any metal of themselves to New York. Not to mention SN would have a prime candidate to codeshare any transatlantic flight of their own with.

[kiwiandrew]

Taken from Airliners.net, and from the original poster kiwiandrew who is active on this forum too.

Thanks for posting it here Fretn , I was quite tired last night ( by my time zone ) and forgot to re-post it here after posting it on Airliners.net .

I really hope that 9W do end up in *A ... if they do it will be interesting to compare the timeframe they do it in compared to AI . AI's acceptance as a future member was announced in Dec 2007 , and , according to the above story AI are committing to be a full member by 31 March 2011 ( originally expected to be 31 March 2009 ! ) . I am sure that 9W can do a lot better than 3 years and 3 months

[Darjeeling]

No way 9W will join *A.

IT and 9W will decide for either ST or OW by 2 years at the earliest.

[kiwiandrew]

No way 9W will join *A.

IT and 9W will decide for either ST or OW by 2 years at the earliest.

IT already decided on OW a few months ago .

Why are you so sure that 9W will not join *A ? 9W have frequent flyer or codeshare arrangements with 8 *A members ( far more than AI has ) compared to only 3 Skyteam members and 4 Oneworld members .

[RoMax]

The fact that Air India admits that 9W is talking with Star Alliance and that they don't make a problem of the fact that they should join Star, and only asked Star to give AI the chance to enter first, is for me a big reason to think that this talks between Star and 9W are really serious. Otherwise AI (still a big concurrent of Jet)would not tell to the press that 9W is talking with Star.

Star has the best chance: Jet has a big amount of codeshares with Star carriers, it has his international hub at a Star Alliance hub, their most important international partner (SN) is a Star member, Oneworld has now Kingfisher and OW is just to small for two Indian members, Jet has only very few contacts (codeshares, Frequint flyer program agreements...)with Skyteam...
The biggest problem was that Air India could block a Star membership for Jet Airways, but now they say that they didn't care about it. They just want to enter first.

My conclusion is that the chance that Jet will enter Star has seriously increased because AI has no problem with it.
Only Sky and Star still make chance, and Star is for the moment absolutly the best choice.

[kiwiandrew]

Hmm , I wonder whether I am reading too much into this stray comment buried in the following news article .

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Lu ... ia/621522/

.....“Since AI is the first Indian airline to join the Star Alliance , even Lufthansa will have the advantage of expanding its network in the country,” said an analyst....

Is that a hint that there could be a second ?

[RoMax]

It's clear that Air India wants to be the first in Star and because they are government owned they have the advantage above Jet. The civil aviation ministry has decided that Jet will not get permission to start new codeshares with foreign carriers wich are member of Star Alliance until the date Air India joins star.
Because Jet is more and more expanding their coorperations with Star members, AI and the Ministry are afraid that Jet would join before Air India.
Early this year the ministry aproved the codeshare with United. This codeshare started in June and counts several international routes and not less than 66 domestic US routes from the different UA hubs.
Combine this big codeshare with UA with the big coorperation with SN and the codeshares with ANA and Air Canada... That makes Air India afraid.

Jet also wants to expand it's network to Paris and Rome. But AI is flying to Paris and Jet would hurt AI, the ministry said. So theses permissions for Rome and Paris are also put on hold by the ministry.

So this means Jet can not start new codeshares with Star members until March 2011, when AI joins. Lukely they aproved the UA codeshare early this year, because that's are really big one.

http://www.livemint.com/2010/08/2422151 ... l?atype=tp

[sn26567]

Interesting article in De Standaard today: http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail. ... d=GN3067JI

In short, Jet Airways should make a decision about joining an alliance within the next 6 months. Oneworld is out of question, because Kingfisher is already a member and British Airways is too strong a competitor. Remain Star Alliance (with the risk of intre-alliance competition with Air India) and Skyteam.

Jet Airways had just opened a route to Milan, one of Skyteam's hubs. But Jet Airways is also very pleased with its presence at Brussels Airport and its ccoperation with Brussels Airlines. If they choose Skyteam, the cooperation with Nrussels Airlines will have to stop, and they will leave Brussels Airport.

Decision within 6 months.

[fretn]

They will join STAR, I'm practically 100% sure about this.
India has enough demand to have two carriers in one alliance.

[Megaman]

I want jet to fly brussels miami.

[RoMax]

They will join STAR, I'm practically 100% sure about this.
India has enough demand to have two carriers in one alliance.

I aggree with you about two carriers in one alliance. But I'm more and more sceptical about Jet joining Star. Jet recently said that they are working out an agreement with Alitalia to connect pax from MXP to other European airports and some months ago Jet started a codeshare with Kenya Airways and currently 9W is blocked from new codeshares with Star members...

All things wich could lead 9W to Skyteam wich would be very bad for BRU and SN...

[Atlantis]

This is all speculation of course but 2011 will be a very special/important year for BRU and it's near future.

Don't forget that Jet Airways (9W) also ended it's catering contract.
If Jet decide to join Skyteam that will be a disaster for Brussels Airport (traffic rights, retail, -800.000 pax, ground handling, cargo), Brussels Airlines (lost of an important partner and feeder flights for them) and pax who will have no direct flights to India.

This remind me of my words three years ago: don't rely on one partner.

But we will see in 6 months or maybe earlier.

[SabenaForever]

I think Jet would be stronger, if they choose 'Star'... For the moment they have more partners with 'Star' than they have with Skyteam!
I think leaving BRU will not only affect the Airport but also the airline, how much did they invest in BRU?
If they choose MXP, i can understand... But Alitalia as a feeder for the European network is a real challenge, not a reliable airline. Plus there network is not really big from Malpensa!

I hope BRU and Star will do their job!!

[RoMax]

It's like 9W said in "De Standaard", they invest a lot of effort and money in their BRU hub. That isn't something you just throw away.
It would cost a lot of money if they choose Skyteam: replacing EU hub from BRU to MXP, replacing partnerships with SN, UA, AC, ANA (especially SN and UA codeshares are big)...

@Atlantis: about that catering contract. Didn't they replaced their contract with GateGourmet to a contract with LSG Skychefs (a LH daughter)?

[Atlantis]

It's like 9W said in "De Standaard", they invest a lot of effort and money in their BRU hub. That isn't something you just throw away.

But 9W will not stay at BRU just because they have one of the most luxuary lounges.

Time will tell

[Atlantis]

@Atlantis: about that catering contract. Didn't they replaced their contract with GateGourmet to a contract with LSG Skychefs (a LH daughter)?

Correct